BITS-O-WISDOM: "It's okay to eat it all, but no rule says you have to eat it all in one sitting." -- Kathryn Martyn Smith, M.NLP

Food Trivia: Carrots were first grown as a medicine, not a food.

Reduce Body fat Without Surgery or Exercise

Folly you say, but here's the scoop on ultrasound for non-surgical liposuction.

What if there were a way to reduce body fat without exercise or surgery? Could ultrasound be the answer? CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta took a look in his report, "New Procedures Promise to Melt Away Fat." Gupta said ultrasound was the procedure most plastic surgeons said has the most promise.

Mesotherapy is another popular procedure in Europe and just showing up in the states. Mesobeauty.com says Mesotherapy is, "the practice of using micro-injections of ... medication and/or vitamins into the mesoderm or middle layer of skin to deliver healing or corrective treatment to a specific area of the body." That's a mouthful, but what's that got to do with losing inches?

The jury is still out on mesotherapy. Just remember all great advances in science have been met with skepticism (The Earth is Flat Society comes to mind), so never say never. Then again, melting away the fat?

I'd say we'll not see the day when you can do your health much good without plain, ordinary exercise and a healthful diet, and that's what I still recommend.

More on Mesotherapy

Get Kids Cooking

Get kids involved in the kitchen and you'll be surprised how much laughter ensues. Laughter is a great abdominal exercise too, so gather some kids, get some recipes and let the laughter begin.
Easy Kids Recipes

Watch those portions for kids. Remember we're all different sizes and kids are smallest of all, yet they are burning the calories like mad, if they are active. See more below in "Serving Size Madness."

Silly Diet Products Update

Anti-Cellulite Shoes, Diet Chocolate, Slimming Pants and my favorite Weight Loss Suntan Lotion (I'm not making this up!) [Alas, that site is now gone, wonder why?]

I learned about Bliss from Jim at Diet-Blog, one of my favorite blogs.

Bliss has many cool weight losing products that can help skinny up your wallet. One of my favorites are shoes that help reduce cellulite (so they say) or the ultimate best all time product for someone with more money than brains, Weight Loss Suntan Lotion. Yup. Just slather it in and magically you'll shrink, I kid you not.

If that's not enough, how about their diet chocolate? Just eat three pieces a day and lose up to four pounds in a month. Okay. How does chocolate help? Disclaimer: I did not try this product. My guess is they also state you must eat a low calorie diet and get regular exercise (which is on the insert for all weight losing products). Same old, same old. Eat less, exercise more. Oh, and have a few chocolates. Get the Bliss catalog. It's fun.

Personally I prefer Lora Broady's approach in her book, "The Chocolate Diet." See my review below in "Lose More Weight By Reading More Books."

Laughter as Exercise

My husband gets me laughing so hard my stomach muscles start to hurt, so I decided it's another form of exercise! Thanks, Chuck.

Featured Article: Responsible Indulgence

Getting Through The Holidays Without Seasonal Weight Gain and Picking Up The Pieces After They're Over

Here it is again: Holiday Season! What's your plan? Are you eating everything in sight saying, "I'll start a diet in January," or do you eat a bit more sensibly, enjoying treats but not going crazy about it?

We've all been there. Some years I indulge much more and others holidays are a breeze. How do I do it? I follow Sensible Indulgence year-round.

Pay Attention to Mindless Eating

Sensible Indulgence means paying attention to mindless eating; such as, popping olives because they're there. Eating cookie after cookie until you think you'll explode, then asking to take some home, "for my husband."

Just because their called Christmas Cookies doesn't mean you can't bake them in August. We associate certain recipes with holidays but it's not as if you can't mix some flour, eggs and sugar any time you want.

Get Picky

Start by being picky. If you have a choice, choose homemade over store bought. You can get those packaged cookies any time, so why indulge with those? Think "taste" not "getting full." You want a sweet taste in your mouth, not an aching gut.

Being responsible takes conscious attention but it's not at all deprivation. Deprivation is refusing something you want, responsible indulgence is having some, enjoying it, and maybe saving the rest for later.

Holidays are also not your last meal so stop eating like you'll never eat again. The food's not going to jump up and run away. There's enough. If you have a family of cookie hogs guess what? You can go get or make more! It's true. There are things called stores, and except for a few days out of the year they are nearly always open.

Have a treat, have two. It's okay. But six or 12 may be pushing it a bit. We all love treats. Enjoy them and feel good about it too.

This could be the best time to start my 8-week online, Ending Emotional Eating course. Right at the worst time of year for many of you. Get lessons in how to apply the EFT and NLP techniques for your issues. Learn to counter snack attacks, and enjoy the holidays like you've never been able to do before.

Even if you start after the holidays, next year is another chance to practice what you learn. Read More in One More Bite's Weight Loss Article Archive

Join Me in Losing 10 Pounds

I may go several years without reaching my upper weight gain limit (10 pounds) but this last year was unusual. I got back with and remarried the love of my life, Chuck, and he's been having a great time cooking and feeding me like I'm a lumberjack. I'm talking huge steaks, tons of bacon and pancakes, eating out a lot, and the wine keeps flowing.

Keep eating like that for long and guess what happens? Weight gain, is what, so here I am, carrying around my extra 10 and thinking it's time to get started and nip it in the bud before it becomes a lifelong habit.

Join me in how I take weight off following the steps in my 8-week program. No kidding! I follow my own program because I know it works. You may be wondering, "If your program's so great, why'd you gain 10 pounds?" We'll hold on there a minute. This is about life, not perfection. Weight maintainers usually have weight range they consider okay. Mine is 5 to 10 pounds. When I near or reach my upper limit it's time to do something or face the consequences.

Start the 8-week program now and work along with me. You'll be seeing how I use EFT and NLP, how I may stumble and how I pick myself back up and all the fun details of how I use my One More Bite program to take off weight when the need arises.

This is how a lifetime plan works. After you've reached your goal the game's not over, although it'll be easy to take weight back off, if you want, once you know how. The One More Bite 8-week program is about learning how to find your weight range and once you reach it how to stay there.

8-Week Weight Loss Program Details and if you're ready to get started, sign up now

New Foods & Products

Coke's New Drink: Enviga Coke has a new entry into the slimming wars: Enviga, a drink that purports to increase calorie burn rate. Um, okay. Sure. Whatever.

Then There's Toobee: Have Fun, Lose Weight I got one then we waited for daylight, so we wouldn't lose it. Of course we couldn't wait and ended up playing with it at night so...we immediately lost it. It looked like it would fly all crazy and could be tons of fun, if only we can find it again. Remember, anything that gets you moving counts as exercise, even if you're laughing while you do it.

Finally, Lightfull Smoothies and a Coupon These are great. Portable. Low Calorie and chock full of nutrients. Great for breakfast skippers, those times when you're too busy to eat, and those hungry attacks.

Let's dive into The Slimming Pool Weight Loss Blog

Drink to Burn Calories
TooBee, Have Fun, Lose Weight
LightFull Smoothies, Coupon

The Wedding Day Diet

This title caught my eye. Great gimmick too, a diet for rapid loss right before a big day; such as, weddings, reunions or other big event. Problem was the link led to BFFM (Burn Fat, Feed Muscle) a great program, but not a rapid loss plan at all. The Burn the Fat program is solid science mixed with good sense.

Rapid loss plans generally flush water and/or cause a steep calorie reduction, thereby decreasing your girth in a fat hurry--but they are always temporary. That's why the 10 pounds you lose over the weekend comes back by Tuesday.

My recommendation for rapid loss, whether for your wedding or any special occasion is follow the low carb approach for a week or few days. Very little carbs ingested will flush your water so fast it'll make your head spin, literally. Be careful you don't faint.

After the temporary carb reduction stand back while it all comes rushing back, but at least you got into that little dress for the party, right? Science has proved that repeated short-term losses and regains are more harmful to your health than simply carrying that extra 20 pounds so never do this on a regular basis.

More on Burn-the-Fat Build the Muscle's program here (I do own this program)

Wintery Treats: Vermont Style Yellow Snow

No, not what you're thinking. This is a sweet treat. Take a pie plate or small bowl. Fill with crushed ice (or snow if you know it's clean). Heat real maple syrup. Slowly swirl from a spoon over the ice/snow. Then with a fork, lift and twirl the icy maple stuff and eat, quickly.

Serving Size Madness

Go to the kitchen and pull out a half cup measure. Add pudding and put in a bowl. Now take a look. Are you happy with what you see? Is it enough to satisfy your sweet tooth, or are you already thinking you need more? Am I the only one who's eaten all four servings at once?

We get so caught up in the "serving size" madness we lose sight of the real thing: feeding ourselves well. It's okay to eat a whole cup of pudding, really it is. Add whipping cream if you like. The idea is, when you allow yourself a treat, you don't feel you have to consume the world.

It's not the pudding, it's the padding. It isn't that one bowl of ice cream it's the half gallon twice a week. It's what you do the majority of the time that shapes your destiny (not to mention your backside). Take a loot at your regular, everyday habits. Where can you make some small modifications?

A little less here, a bit less often there and soon you'll find you've lost a few pounds. How did that happen, you may wonder. It's the one more bite here, another little lick there that foils the best laid plans. Stop nibbling your way to an early grave.

It's okay to have a piece of pie, if you want. Eat it, enjoy it. Eat slowly. Don't wolf down your food like a starving dog. You won't miss out on anything by eating a bit slower, and you'll get more enjoyment out of it too.

Eat the foods you really love and pay attention to how you spend your calorie bank.

Instant Weight Loss

Oh, this is fun. A measuring tape that's modified with elastic so you can stretch it to give any measurement you want. Why didn't they think of this before? Set your scale back so it'll give you the number you want when you step on it too. Then use this tape measure to whittle your waist and see whatever size you want. Who doesn't love toys? Try the Instant Weight Loss Measuring Tap on for Size.

EFT For Life Club

You want an elite membership that no one else will even know what it means? Join the EFT for Life Club. Eyes glaze over when you say EFT which keeps it exclusive. You simply keep a smug smile knowing you have it going on and they don't. ha ha

Membership means you pay a small amount for access. That's it. No big deal, just the icky poohs will stay away, and we'll have a nice private place to chat, share ideas about what works best, and tell our stories. Look for it in January.

Tools to Track Your Progress:

BellyGraph.com is a fun way to graph your progress. I created a facsimile of my progress when I lost my 80 pound pregnancy weight gain. Notice how some weeks there was no loss, some weeks there was even a gain, but overall progress was slowly and steadily downward. That's what you can expect too, if you make slow, steady changes in your usual behavior. Oh, happy day, I found it. My original weight Loss graph that I used 19 years ago to track my loss from 218 to 140. I chose 140 as my target weight because that was my healthiest weight.

I used 2 pounds a week as my guideline, then tracked what really happened. Looking back now I can see that it was a steady downward trend but at the time it seemed awfully slow. Just more proof that slow and steady wins the weight game.

Graph your progress. It's great to show off later and see how far you've come. My Original 80 Pound Weight Loss Graph

My Weight Loss Chart at Bellygraph.com. This one I created when I couldn't find the original. It's close, but the real graph was actually even steeper.

Lose More Weight By Reading More Books (I made that up since I love to read)

Today's Read: The Chocolate Diet "Growing Up on the Chocolate Diet," is a wonderful book by Lora Broady. In it she writes of eating chocolate every day. It's not about eating chocolate. It's about being an average sized woman who indulges her passion for chocolate just about every single day and it doesn't hurt her weight one bit.

Giving yourself what you really want goes further toward success than denial. Try it.

Health & Wellness Website Spotter: Hire a personal chef.

Personal Chef. Now that's indulgence, but oh so worth it.

Recipes, No Gluten & No Casein Diets

Awesome place to discover new things to imbibe: Even have ClubBev ;-)

Recipe Corner: Chocolate Pudding Berry Bliss

Serves 3 - 6. Found at Kraft Foods
2 cups fat free milk
1 pkg. (4-serving) JELL-O Chocolate Flavor (use the no fat, no sugar,
reduced calorie version)
1/2 cup thawed Cool Whip no fat Whipped Topping (or some other whipped topping) 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries (in winter?)

Add milk to medium sized bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk or fork 2 min. or until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping.

Spoon half the pudding evenly into six dessert glasses. Top with a layer of berries and remaining pudding mixture.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Store leftover desserts in refrigerator (like you'd have leftovers). Personally I doubt I'd get six servings, maybe three though. See my thoughts on serving sizes below.

EFT Basics for Weight Loss

Web Site Spotter: Sports Cliche's Galore

Got a sport's nut in your house? Study up, then drop a few of these and they'll be so impressed, they won't even realize you're making fun

Until next time, yours in good eating,
Kathryn Martyn Smith, M.NLP